With a cast of original members and even the original crew, Del Amitri return from a ten year sabbatical to wheel out every hit from every era of their lengthy recording career. Justin Currie and Iain Harvie will once again be joined on stage by Andy Alston, Kris Dollimore and Ashley Soan. The tour will also take in Liverpool with a performance at the Empire Theatre on February 2nd.
It’s been 30 years since Del Amitri’s debut single, Sense Sickness, their contribution to all things early 80s and jangly. “The A to Z of Us will take a retrospective sweep of our entire output, from indie art-pop through folk-tinged balladry to hairy Brit-rock chuggery”, says front man Justin Currie.
Formed in Glasgow in 1983, during their distinguished career Del Amitri had four Top 10 albums and a string of memorable hit singles. Their million selling breakthrough album Waking Hours (1989) included the hits Nothing Ever Happens and Kiss This Thing Goodbye. The follow-up, 1992’s Change Everything, featured the massive radio single Always The Last To Know and reached number 2 in the albums chart, only being held off the top slot by the might of The Bodyguard soundtrack. 1995’s Twisted charted at No.3 and included their biggest ever single Roll To Me, which reached No.10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Del Amitri’s most recent album was 2002’s Can You Do Me Good?, and the band have been on hiatus since finishing the subsequent tour.
“Whenever anyone asked if Del Amitri would ever re-form,” says guitarist Iain Harvie, “our standard response was ‘We never broke up – the phone just stopped ringing.’”
It has started ringing now and Del Amitri are picking it up from where they left off.
The A To Z of Us starts in Dublin on January 22nd and visits Manchester on the 1st February before coming to Liverpool the next day. Tickets for the tour are available from www.gigsandtours.com. Tickets are priced at £35/£45 for the Liverpool show.